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Join us today as Brad Vance answers some questions and shares his new release with us. Plus there’s a special announcement about a free book available on 19th/20th Feb and a giveaway as well.

Blurb

When Rocky met Dex, it was hate at first sight. Country superstar Dex Dexter represented everything that budding rock star Rocky McCoy had left behind him in the Deep South – the religion, the homophobia, the hypocrisy, the lies. And Rocky represented everything that Dex had denied, had turned away from, had refused…

When Rocky met Dex, it was love at first touch. Double booked in the same slot on the main stage at CrossFest, they fought for the microphone like two dogs fighting over a bone. And when their hands met…

Rocky has had enough. “No more falling for straight guys. No way. No matter how hot. Especially if the ‘straight guy’ looks to me like a major closet case.”

What they’ve had enough of doesn’t matter. It’s what they’ve never had enough of that will bring them together…

Interview

Thanks for joining us today, Brad. Congratulations on our new release. We are also happy to have the opportunity to ask you some questions. Instead of the usual question, we were hoping to get a glimpse into your day – A Day in the Life of Brad Vance… I hope you don’t mind us prying. 😉

On a typical day, how much time would you spend writing? Describe your writing environment.

Thank you! Great to be here. I spend about three hours a day on average doing the actual writing. That’s not my whole working day, of course. There’s making book covers, publishing, blogging, Facebooking, research (lots of research), wow… sometimes I feel like Madeleine Kahn in “Blazing Saddles” – I’m not a wabbit!

I have a two bedroom house and the second bedroom is my office. My cats each have their own comfortably appointed chairs in here where they keep me company. To be honest, they’re probably also in here because that’s where the electric radiator is… The office has southern and western exposures, so there’s lot of light, which I need for my mental health. I have a big “Emperor Palpatine” chair that makes it much easier to sit here for my long days.

Are you a night owl or a day person? How many hours sleep do you get?

Oh very much a morning person. I’ve had a day job all my life, and I don’t have any creative energy in the evenings anyway, so I’ve had to get used to getting up early if I want to get anything done. Elmore Leonard was always up and writing at 4 a.m. when he had a day job, but I’ve got him beat lately. I’m a bit of an insomniac now, so I’m usually on the computer by 2:30 or 3 am. But then, it’s winter so I go to bed at 8! These days I’m getting about 4 or 5 hours of sleep, supplemented with a nice afternoon nap. But, I’ve finally reached a level of success with my writing that I can finally go “day job free” in a few weeks, so maybe that will let me feel like I can sleep in a little later.

Quitting the day job. Wow, you will be making so many people jealous. Congratulations for getting to that point in your life.

Shower or bath? See we are getting really personal here. 🙂

Well, I’m 6’2” so shower! Baths are no fun when you’re all folded up and only half your body is in the water. But, my gym has a nice Jacuzzi, so that’s where I get my “immersion therapy.”

What’s on the menu for dinner tonight? What would you rather be eating?

Hmm. I think tonight it’s cilantro garlic salmon patties from Whole Foods. I’ve gotten out of the habit of cooking, but working two jobs, the day job and “being Brad Vance,” will do that to you. I’m really looking forward to the luxury of enough time to restart that. If I had a magic wand, and could eat one thing forever without ever getting fat, it would probably be peanut butter. Whole Foods Honey Peanut Butter. “I’ll have it in a bucket!”

What book is currently on the bedside table? Or maybe the bed reserved for other things, rather than reading 😉

Ohh, right now it’s just me and the cats. I don’t have time for a boyfriend. A social life would interfere with my phenomenal productivity right now. I’ve got a stack of books for my alter ego, science fiction writer “Adam Vance,” on guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency. This is research for his “FJ One” series, starting with “Scarcity.” It’s nice to do something different, more cerebral and action-oriented, and I’m really enjoying writing these.

I’m reading Max Boot’s “Invisible Armies,” which is awesome. I’m a huge history buff. For pleasure, it’s Simon Sebag Montefiore’s “Jerusalem” and for semi-pleasure, semi-research, I just got a book called “Berlin Now.” It’s semi-research because Adam’s post-Collapse world has its capital in Berlin (because Germany is really the only country right now that isn’t in debt to its eyeballs, among other reasons). But it’s also pleasure, because I’m really looking forward to a European vacation if my sales continue to boom like they have lately. I hope to have time to start reading fiction again soon.

What’s the best part of your day?

Right now? Waking up and checking my sales figures 🙂 I’m hitting the jackpot with both my erotic series “Kyle’s New Stepbrother” and with “Have a Little Faith in Me.” That feels great. I’ve been doing this for two and a half years, and every day I’ve checked my sales. Some days I’d get excited if I sold ten copies of something overnight. A lot of days I’d get no sales on a new title in the first week and just be crushed. So, right now, it’s like a drug, seeing the big numbers.

Share with us one secret or snippet from Have a Little Faith In Me, that isn’t from the blurb or excerpt.

This is a scene with Dex as a teenager, escaping his crazy family and his dad Mike for just a minute…

Dex took his guitar out to the free-standing garage, going through the back door so his dad wouldn’t have a chance to make another dumbass comment.

Because Dex was sixteen years old, emotional hurt got expressed back out again as anger. The detached garage had become his space by default. There was a jumble of tools haphazardly stuck on the wall, and a punching bag. Mike had bought the bag off Craigslist one day when he thought he was a badass. But he punched the bag about as often as he used the tools. Not since the day he’d tried a flying kick and landed on his ass, to the hysterical laughter of his family.

Dex put on the boxing gloves. Even in his rage he made sure to protect his fingers. He got in a fighting stance, then began pounding the bag.

He hated his father with the raging disgust only a teenager can feel for a parent. His dad was a deadbeat, plain and simple. Right about now he’d be in the kitchen, the freezer door open, a gallon of ice cream in one hand and a soup spoon in the other, as if he was just going to have a bite. And he’d fucking stand there, Dex thought as he landed a series of jabs and crosses, shove shove shoveling that ice cream down his gullet.

Then, he knew, his dad would go to work, and do just what he’d done at every job he’d ever had – goof off as much as possible, slack off and string out the easiest task as long as he could, devoting more energy to thinking of ways to get out of working than it would have taken him to do his job.

“Goin’ back to a real job when the plant opens again,” he’d say to his drinking buddies as they sprawled in the new patio furniture scattered across the front lawn. They’d nod and raise their beers, as if any of them would ever go back to the plant, where they’d actually had to work, if they could help it.

Tonight he’d go to work at the casino, and he and his buddies would cover for each other as they took naps in the one corner of the casinos that someone had thoughtlessly forgotten to cover with a camera. Then he’d come home, drink some more, pass out, snore like the devil from his COPD, wake up in time to throw up from his GERD, and then wash the bile back down with his first beer of the day.

When he’d pounded the bag to his satisfaction, Dex took off the gloves and took his acoustic guitar out of its case, gently. He loved this Martin guitar. Johnny Cash played a Martin, and that was all he needed to know.

He’d bought it for a couple hundred bucks off one of his dad’s friends who’d been short of cash and, of course, hadn’t played it in years. Most of Dex’s paychecks went to music-related purchases, where other boys his age spent theirs on a car. Dex was content to walk forever if that was the price he had to pay.

He got his fingers flexed, sounded out some chords, then thought about what he wanted to play. He wasn’t a book learner, couldn’t march through the Mel Bay books, down the accepted path of orderly progression where you learned all the chords before you played the songs you really wanted to play. He wanted to play NOW, not later. He’d learned the opening to Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” before he ever touched “Red River” or “Amazing Grace.”

Mike played the electric guitar sometimes, when he and his friends were drunk and decided they’d “jam” in the front yard. He’d bang on it and mess up the chords and laugh. Then he’d take a break for another beer and announce that “Someday I’m a gonna get our old band back together.”

Dex thought about that now, and some lyrics popped into his head.

“I’m a gonna go back to work real soon, I’m a gonna fix that busted roof, I’m a gonna get that truck off the blocks, just as soon as I finish this beer.”

He laughed. “I’m a gonna” was pretty much the mantra around here, he thought.

He knew what he wanted to play tonight. He hadn’t learned to read music, so he played from “tabs.” Tablature replaced complex musical notation with dots that showed you where to put your fingers. And best of all, you could download them for free on the Internet.

He put the paper on the music stand. His mind cleared, his anger dissipated, as he started playing the song, pleased at the way the transcription converted the piano opening to guitar.

He didn’t trust his voice yet, didn’t have the confidence to do more than whisper the words along with the song. “Have a little faith in me,” he sighed as he played the John Hiatt song. “Have a little faith in me…”

Thank you so much for answering my questions and the special little treat at the end! 🙂

Excerpt

Rocky picked up the Gibson Hummingbird. Chris Cornell played one of these. What more did he need to know?

He knew exactly what he wanted to play. How many times had he played this song, how many times had he stretched his voice, discovering his own vocal range. The notes of “Like a Stone” flowed from his fingers in a waterfall, and the words were a flock of birds banking wildly in front of the cascade, flirting with disaster.

He came to the end, the roaring finish, his eyes closed as he sang the epic wave of notes in the last word of the song, “alone.”

He’d only ever played the song when he was alone with Korey, who was no cheerleader. Korey would nod, say, “Good job.” And then tell him where he missed something.

When he was done, he opened his eyes. His new friends were speechless. “Was it okay?” he asked doubtfully.

“Holy fucking great mother of God,” Rick gasped. “Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from?”

Buy Link

Giveaway

FREE BOOK!

“The Worst Best Luck” was selected for a BookBub on February 19/20 – it’ll be FREE on Amazon those days, and has a 10k excerpt from “Have a Little Faith in Me” at the end.

Peter Rabe’s luck is about to change. Taking a co-worker’s car into the shop nets him a desperately needed $100 tip…and the attentions of Matt Kensington, master mechanic. Peter can’t believe that someone as hot as Matt could be interested in the young man his tormentors used to call “Peter Rabbit.” But, incredibly enough, he is. And when the Quadrillions lottery jackpot is up to $700,000,000, wouldn’t it be crazy of Peter not to buy a ticket on his lucky day? Matt doesn’t think much of money, having grown up on New York’s Upper East Side in the lap of luxury. He’d walked away from the professional drudgery his Harvard degree had qualified him for, to become a mechanic, to touch things that were real, to fix things that were broken. And a hot shy guy like Peter is another machine Matt wants to believe he can fix. But when Peter finds out he’s won the lottery, it almost feels like his luck has run out. Especially when Cody Burrell, his emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend, mysteriously re-enters his life just before he cashes the ticket and reveals his good fortune to the world… Peter must wrestle with the pressures of wealth on someone who’s grown up poor, the pressure of fame that comes with so much instant fortune, and most of all, with his own demons, the demons that Cody knows all too well how to manipulate.

Amazon – Make sure you check the price is showing as $0.00 before hitting the buy button.